Cristi Puiu's critically adored Romanian dramaThe Death Of Mr Lazarescu, Patrice Chereau's French chamber piece Gabrielle and Sarah Watt's Australian drama Look Both Ways feature in next month's international competitionline-up at the 41st Chicago International Film Festival.

International competitioninclude features a slew of 2005 festival mainstays such as Heo Jin-ho's April Snow (Korea), Anne Fontaine's EntreSes Mains (France),Stanley Kwan's Everlasting Regret (Hong Kong), Amos Gitai's Free Zone (Israel), Stephen Woolley's Stoned (UK), Andreas Dresen's Summer InBerlin (Germany),Zhang Yang's Sunflower (China) and Tsai Ming-Liang's The Wayward Cloud (Taiwan).

The section is rounded outby Simon Staho's Bang Bang Orangutang (Denmark), Kambozia Partovi's Border Café (Iran),Alessandro D'Alatri's The Fever (Italy), Alexey Guerman Jr's Garpastum (Russia), Kornel Mundruczo's Johanna (Hungary),Manoel de Oliveira's Magic Mirror (Portugal), Krzysztof Krauze's My Nikifor (Poland) and Amat Escalante's Sangre (Mexico).

The New Directors'Competition entries include Anahi Berneri's Argentinian AIDS drama A YearWithout Love (Un Ano Sin Amor), Emmanuel Carrere's French mystery The Moustache (La Moustache), Christoph Hochhausler's German crime drama Low Profile (Falscher Bekenner), and Roland Vranik's Hungarian comedy of errors BlackBrush (Fekete Kefe).

Playing as specialpresentations alongside festival centerpiece screening Bee Season is an array of titles including Niki Caro's NorthCountry, Michael Haneke's Hidden (Cache),Lars Von Tier's Manderlay, andStephen Frears' Mrs Henderson Presents.

Three US pictures willreceive their world premiere, namely Lisa France's friendship drama TheUnseen, John Gulager's creaturefeature and Project Greenlight title Feast, and Mike Meiners' comedy The Trouble With Dee Dee.

The World Cinema strandincludes Alain Tasma's hot French account of the Algerian struggle forindependence October 17, 1961 (NuitNoire), Juan Taratuto's Argentineanromantic comedy It's Not You, It's Me (No Sos Vos Soy Yo), EricKhoo's Singaporean romance Be With Me, and Marco Tullio Giordana's Italian drama Once You're Born You CanNo Longer Hide (Quando Sei NatoNon Puoi Piu Nasconderti).

Jessica Sanders' AfterInnocence heads up an 11-strongDocufest line-up that includes fellow Sundance entries Unknown White Male by Rupert Murray and Marc Levin's The ProtocolsOf Zion.

The festival will feature 11North American Premieres and 34 US premieres and as previously announced itopens on Oct 6 with Elizabethtownand closes with The Weather Man.

Elizabethtown star Susan Sarandon will receive the careerachievement award, and Hustle & Flow star Terrence Howard will be honoured with an achievement award.

The line-up includesshowcases on the Americas, the US, Chicago and Illinois, and Fortissimo Films.Panel discussions will focus on the depiction of ageing in cinema, creativemarketing strategies for niche films, and producing in the MidWest.

'We're so thrilled andfortunate to have such a quality group of films this year, some of the bestfeature and short films, I might add, that we've had in our 41 years," festivalfounder and artistic director Michael Kutza said.